"I think that the advantages to Nokia are clear. Given the scant details revealed so far - perhaps no surprise given that nothing has been formalized just yet - Microsoft is the company in the more difficult position, and it has a lot of questions to answer."

An obvious side benefit of Microsoft is hindering of Meego development and especially adoption. Potential advance of real Linux on Mobile (as well as Qt) threatens to backfire Microsoft on desktop too. Even if WP7 with Nokia wouldn't succeed at all, MS still gains taking out Nokia as a major manufacturer of Meego handsets for whatever time. Even though Intel is committed to stay with Meego, there are no handsets manufacturers so far who replaced Nokia's role in the project.